Glenn Dyer's TV ratings: Ten scores softest launch of the year

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The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Seven’s night, again, the ABC was solid (but down on the same night a year ago), while Ten was easier (not a surprise) as Glee and the new Emily Owens MD both flopped. Seven’s Surveillance Oz again surprised as the most watched program with more than 1.65 million national viewers: Voyeurism still appeals on TV (the basis for Big Brother, Brynne’s Bedazzled Life, Beauty and The Geek and TT and ACA, among a long list). Seven News (1.57 million national viewers) was second thanks to a strong effort in regional areas (but still weak in Melbourne) and Highway Patrol (Seven, 7.30pm) was third with mire than 1.56 million national viewers.

Ten’s new program, Emily Owens MD started at 9.30pm. Not many people noticed, really — less than 300,000 in metro markets and just over 350,000 nationally. The weakest debut this year. Add this one to The Shire, Don’t Tell The Bride, I Will Survive and of course the now legendary turkey, Everybody Dance Now.

Seven was again solid in regional areas, but the network’s continuing weakness in Melbourne showed up again last night with Nine winning to cement top place in the market. Seven is solid elsewhere, but Nine though is terminally weak in Perth where it has been beaten consistently by the ABC this week so far. Bruce Gordon’s WIN must be bleeding money in Perth and Adelaide because of underperformance.

Seven’s Criminal Minds with 871,000 metro and 1.35 million national viewers finished won the 8.30 to 9.30pm slot, even though Gruen Planet won the first half with just over a million metro and more than 1.46 million national viewers. It was followed by The Chaser’s Hamster Wheel which averaged a low 795,000 metro viewers and 1.09 million nationally.

The final Gruen Planet bored Australia last night with the incessant discussion of the big jump a few weeks ago sponsored by Red Bull. All four guests competed to see who could appear to be the cleverest, most insightful about what was a PR stunt. They of course called it marketing genius and more. Self indulgent, boring, turgid come to mind. The program was better when it got away from that and reverted to its format. The Hamster Wheel was again better than Gruen. Gruen finished what turned out to be a fairly predictable season, except for the hosting of Wil Anderson who was on top of his game.

Tonight:Beauty and The Greek on Seven, after poor Brynne’s Bedazzled Life. Nine has Big Brother and AFP. Ten has two episodes of the new Jamie Oliver series, Jamie’s Fifteen Minute Meals (covering an hour of TV?). The ABC has the final Rake for this season. A Cleaver cliffhanger seems to be in order. SBS One has the final episode of Two Greedy Italians and the first episode of Luke Ngyuen’s Greater Mekong trip.

The top 10 national programs (metro & regional combined):

Surveillance Oz (Seven) — 1.656 million.

Seven News — 1.572 million.

Highway Patrol (Seven) — 1.561 million.

Nine News — 1.519 million.

A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.470 million.

Gruen Planet (ABC 1) — 1.463 million.

Criminal Minds (Seven) — 1.357 million.

ABC News (7pm) — 1.258 million.

Home and Away (Seven) — 1.279 million.

7.30 (ABC1) — 1.193 million.

The Metro Winners:

Surveillance Oz (Seven, 8pm) — 1.100 million.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.083 million.

Nine News (6pm) — 1.071 million.

Gruen Planet (ABC1, 8.30pm) — 1.038 million.

Highway Patrol (Seven, 7.30pm) — 1.035 million.

The Losers: Ten’s night, again. Glee returned to Ten at 7.30pm, (552,000 metro viewers and 752,000 nationally). A flop, regardless of whether the downloaders were at work. As pointed out yesterday, the core demo for this program (16s to 49) have gone off it compared to when it started and even season 2. Ten’s Modern Family repeat at 7pm, (493,000 metro and 667,00 national viewers). Too many repeats are strangling this classic. The Good Wife on Ten at 8.30pm, (420,000 metro viewers and 608,000 nationally) A fading beauty. Randling, ABC1 at 9.35pm, (406,000 metro and 588,000 national viewers) Are people still watching this? Emily Owens MD, Ten, 9.30pm (turkey alert), 239,000 metro and 354,000 national viewers. Being beaten by Randling (and At The Movies at 10.10pm with 331,000 metro and 410,000 national viewers) says it all.Metro News & CA: Nine News won Sydney and Melbourne (by 100,000), lost the rest (Perth by 95,000). ACA easuly beat TT with wins in Sydney, Melbourne (By 126,000!) and Brisbane.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.083 million.

Nine News (6pm) — 1.071 million.

A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 969,000.

ABC News (7pm) — 939,000.

Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 913,000.

7.30 (ABC1) — 821,000.

Ten News At Five — 606,000.

The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 504,000.

The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 396,000.

Lateline (ABC 1, 10.40pm) — 223,000.

World News Australia (SBS ONE, 6.30pm) — 164,000.

The Business (ABC 1, 11.15pm rpt) — 157,000.

Ten Late News (10.30pm) — 146,000.

World News Late (SBS ONE, 10.30pm) — 82,000.

The Drum (News 24, 10pm, rpt) — 36,000.

In the morning:Today and Sunrise had a rare tie, Ten’s Breakfast remained solid (for its level of viewing).

Today (Nine, 7am) — 356,000.

Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 356,000.

The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 158,000.

Mornings (Nine, 9am) — 121,000.

News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) — 47,000 + 24,000 on News 24.

Breakfast (Ten, 7am) — 48,000.

Metro FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 30.6% from Nine (3) on 26.5%, the ABC (4) ended with 20.4%, Ten (3) was on 16.8% and SBS (2) ended with 5.7%. Seven leads the week with 30.5%, from Nine on 27.5%, ABC 1 on 19.5% and Ten back on 17.4%. Main Channels: Seven won with a share of 22.1% from Nine on 19.1%, ABC 1 was on 15.8% and Ten was on 10.8%. Seven leads the week with 23.0% from Nine on 20.8%, ABC 1 is on 14.9% and Ten is on 11.7%.

Metro Digital: 7mate won with 4.8% from GO on 3.9%, Eleven was on 3.8%, 7TWO ended on 3.7%, Gem and ABC 2 were on 2.8% each, ONE was on 2.1%, SBS TWO, 1.2%, ABC 3, 1.0% and News 24, 0.8%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share of 26.9%. 7TWO leads the week on 3.9% from GO on 3.7% and 7mate on 3.6%.

Metro including Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 25.4% from Nine (3) on 22.0%, the ABC (4) ended with 16.9%, Ten (3) was on 13.9% and SBS (2) ended with 4.7%. The 15 FTA channels had a total viewing share last night of 85.1%, with the five main channels share on 62.8% and the 10 digital channels share totalling 22.3%. The 200 plus channel on Foxtel gave Pay TV a viewing share last night of 14.9%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox 8 — 3.3%.

LifeStyle — 2.8%

TV1 — 2.4%.

Fox Classics — 1.9%.

Sky News — 1.8%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

Location, Location, Location Australia (LifeStyle) — 83,000.

Family Guy (Fox 8) — 73,000.

The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 68,000.

Futurama (Fox 8) — 64,000.

Grand Designs (LifeStyle) — 62,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 36.9% from WIN/NBN (3) on 24.7%, the ABC (4) ended with 16.2%, SC Ten (3) was on 15.4% and SBS (2) ended with 4.8%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 25.1%, from WIN/NBN on 18.0%, ABC 1 on 13.3% and SC Ten on 9.3%. 7TWO won the digitals with 5.9%, from 7mate on 5.8% and GO on 3.8%. The 10 digital channels had a high FTA share last night of 30.4%. Prime/7Qld lead the week with 34.9% from WIN/NBN on 25.7 %, the ABC on 18.8% and SC Ten on 16.2%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

Surveillance Oz — 555,000.

Highway Patrol — 527,000.

ACA — 499,000.

Seven News — 489,000.

Criminal Minds — 486,000.

Major Metro Markets: A clean sweep by Seven (overall and the main channels) on Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Nine again won Melbourne. Nine was second everywhere bar Melbourne (replaced by Seven). The ABC and ABC 1 were third everywhere bar Perth where they were again second, pushing Nine down to third. 7mate won the digitals in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. 7TWO won Sydney, Eleven won Brisbane. Seven leads everywhere bar Melbourne where Nine is in front. The ABC is running second in Perth behind Seven and in front of Nine.

(All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight All People)